Twenty-two-year-old Clark Atlanta University student Amir Obafemi was arrested Saturday. Obafemi has been charged with felony aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon.

[Morehouse Police Chief Vernon Worthy]said the shooting stemmed from an argument outside after a pick-up basketball game at the gym. He said the shooter brandished a weapon, and the victim made it just inside the building before he was shot in the forearm. The victim, later identified as Cornileus Savage, was taken to Grady Hospital, and is conscious and alert, according to Atlanta police.

Around 130pm Saturday, the Atlanta Police Department said a Morehouse student’s iPhone was snatched from his hand and when he chased the robber several of the suspect’s “associates” attacked the student. "They roughed him up and then fled the scene," APD spokesman Gregory Lyon said. He said the student suffered cuts and bruises and was transported to the hospital.

The Morehouse shooting was the second high-profile shooting in Atlanta last week. "A 14-year-old was wounded on Thursday in a shooting outside a middle school and police said another student was arrested," reports Reuters.

The 143-year-old all-male Morehouse College is one of the nation's most prestigious
historically black colleges and
universities (HBCU). The college boasts famous alumni and "Morehouse
men" such as civil rights icons Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Julian
Bond, filmmaker Spike Lee and actor Samuel L. Jackson.

Dr. John Silvanus Wilson is the new president of Morehouse. In January he spoke to National Public Radio about the challenges facing the historic college. Listen HERE.

04 May 2011

Many historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) have not been especially welcoming to openly LGBT students. Only a handful of HBCUs recognize LGBT student groups. In some cases, the colleges outright prevent gay students from forming groups. The plight of LGBT youth on HBCU campuses becomes all the more critical in the wake of recent news stories, such as violent attacks against gay students At Morehouse College and its controversial new dress code.

Black colleges as a whole have been slower to take on this public dialogue on lesbian and gay issues for a few reasons. "Some [schools] were founded with religious affiliation," Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman explained. In addition, the relative silence on the issue seems to mirror the Black community’s attitude as a whole. "Black colleges are not different from African-American communities in general."

Guy-Sheftall says she’s seen other campuses have issues surrounding dress code. “But the biggest issue we’re facing on our campuses is [the lack of] open public dialogue,” she said. The suicide last year by a gay Rutgers University student, who jumped off a bridge last September after his sexual encounter with another man was streamed live unbeknownst to him, made the project more urgent, she continued, and the hope is to tackle intolerance on HBCU campuses, before it reaches that point.

In addition to Spelman, the other participating colleges included Bennett College of Women, Clark Atlanta University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, North Carolina Central University, Philander Smith College and Southern University.

The Human Rights Campaign's Deputy Director for Diversity Donna Payne paneled a session on LGBT organizing with National Black Justice Coalition CEO Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks. "I was satisfied with the turnout. About 115 people attended," Payne tells Rod 2.0. "However, I was not satisfied with the lack of participation from HBCU presidents. There was only one President there—Spelman President Beverly Daniel Tatum."

"Anthony Pinder, a gay HBCU alumnus, documented stories of 28 male HBCU alumni and the cost of hiding their true identity. The president of Spelman College, Dr. Beverly D. Tatum, was on the Administrators’ panel—originally the "Presidents’" panel. Dr. Tatum pointed out that the panel had to be renamed because other presidents declined to participate. National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director Sharon Lettman-Hicks spoke about her discussion with 12 presidents in 2010. Shockingly, one president told her he believed he didn’t have any gay students!"

HRC launched an interactive website for LGBT HBCU students in late 2009. Six HBCU students attended the White House LGBT Pride Reception in 2010.

"This is the new NAACP," said Clark University political science professor Ravi Perry, the new chapter president in Worcester. "This is a human rights organization, and we have an obligation to fight discrimination at all levels."

NAACP branches have been recruiting gays, immigrants and young people who grew up in a world far removed from the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed school segregation. Now, leadership positions that were once held only by blacks are being filled by members of other racial or ethnic groups. in recent years NAACP chapters in New Jersey, Connecticut and Georgia have elected Hispanics as president. A white man was picked to lead the chapter in Aiken, S.C. And two years ago, NAACP members in Hamtramck, Mich., a Detroit suburb, selected a Bangladeshi American to revive their long-dormant chapter.

There has been some pushback. In Worcester, Perry is responding to critics in the local chapter who "feel blindsided by what they say appears to be 'his own agenda'," reports the Worcester Telegram. Presumably that is a reference to LGBT issues.

In February 2010, the NAACP elected 44-year-old Roslyn Brock as its new chairwoman to replace the legendary Julian Bond. Brock joins 37-year-old NAACP President Benjamin Jealous—who has tried to engage LGBT issues— and both have pledged to make the veteran civil rights organization more relevant.

Ravi Perry, a political science professor at Clark University, was elected Saturday with a slated of new officers. The 28-year-old says he hopes that as an openly gay man he can help the storied civil rights group address long-ignored gay and lesbian issues in minority communities. Perry also said that most on the newly elected Worcester board are 40 years of age, signaling a generational shift within the NAACP.

In February 2010, the NAACP elected 44-year-old Roslyn Brock as its new chairwoman to replace the legendary Julian Bond. Brock joins 37-year-old NAACP President Benjamin Jealous—who has tried to engage LGBT issues— and both have pledged to make the veteran civil rights organization more relevant to today's black youth.